BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1023
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 13, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
1023 (Rendon) - As Amended April 20, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to
establish and maintain a weekly communications log that
summarizes ex parte communications. Specifically, this bill:
AB 1023
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1)Requires all oral or written ex parte communication to be
included in the weekly log.
2)For the purposes of the log, defines ex parte communication as
communication that occurs between a person with an interest in
a matter before the PUC and either a Commissioner, advisor to
a Commission, an administrative law judge, or the Executive
Director, Deputy Executive Director or the Director of a
division.
3)Requires the log to include the date of the communication, the
persons involved, and any known proceeding that was the
subject of the communication and to be published weekly on the
PUC website.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Absorbable costs to the PUC of less than $150,000 (special
fund).
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. In recent months, revelations have shown a pattern
of informal and private contacts by PUC members with regulated
entities. In response, PUC management set up a weekly
communications log that summarizes oral and written ex parte
communications.
This bill expands existing PUC policy to include
quasi-legislative proceedings, advice letters, and scoping
memos, and increase publishing to every week.
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2)Background. In 2014, revelations surfaced that members of the
PUC repeatedly had informal private contacts with entities
under its regulatory purview. As a result, on October 18,
2014, the PUC Executive Director issued a memo implementing
new reporting procedures for communications between certain
PUC staff and PUC-regulated entities.
Since October 15, 2014, the PUC began publishing these logs
every other week.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081